Ah, the rites of spring, or actually just late winter. Weather thawed things a couple of times lately. And that’s fun since we get temperatures above freezing and can lose the warmest of our winter coats. Fun to see the sun melt much of our snow — yessss! I know, I know, it’s not spring but I get a small taste of the thaw that will arrive in a couple of months and I look forward to it.
The down side is the thaw seems to find its way into our basement among others. Mopping up water and shifting stuff around to dry is no fun.
And then you go for a nice calming drive and there’s potholes!
The road freezes, thaws, freezes, thaws, heaves! Heaving, that time where potholes arrive, grow and threaten to swallow your car. Actually not sure which stage the heaving happens. Is it after the freeze or after the thaw? But the potholes are there and sure enough our little Corolla stumbled into one of them! And it hit hard — wheel cover took flight like a frisbee at the dog park. Lucky no one was in the path of it.
The Corolla rolled on. But as I inspected it later there was a big ding in the rim. Hmmm, not good news for the rim or the tire or maybe the alignment or I don’t know, I’m not mechanical… sigh. Time to go see my friends, who I hope never to visit, at the tire store.
Funny we all have those people in our lives. People we hope to not see too soon. Now here I’m thinking of dentists, mechanics, plumbers and roofers. If you have other categories like certain relatives, well that’s another story. I’ll pray for that.
So, after an hour at the tire store there is joy in the land once more. Just hammered out the rim, tire held air, and all checked out good!
I drive home and on the way find myself laughing as I listen to some comedy on the radio.
“Hey, wait a minute, I didn’t tune in the AM radio comedy station.”
I almost never listen to the radio. (stems from working in radio for years, but that’s another story) Must have been my tire technician. That made me laugh again. Apparently he was taking advantage of my car radio and listening to comedy while he worked. Good for him. In certain places and at certain times we have a chance to benefit from specific things.
This whole idea floods my brain with simple but good examples. Like, I’m working at home today and can sit in the rocker with a cup of tea while enjoying our front picture window to the outside world. Or sometimes there’s a handy fireplace which is cozy and nice to work in front of. I like travel, sort of, well not so much. But once, in a hotel in a faraway city my room was on a high floor and caught the afternoon sun. I napped in full sun like a cat on my bed.
Or maybe it’s the apple spice tea they keep at my car dealer’s café that I enjoy. Or that my daughter is on reading week from university and she’s around the house more. Or when I walk the dog on an early really cold winter morning but the sun rises and I can feel the warmth on my face — ahhhhh! There’s that cat feeling again. So many cool things, small things, fun things, great people that make the day better.
Often they are unexpected. Sometimes I plan for them — back in our early married days, we usually only went to movies on “Cheap Movie Tuesday” and I’d often temptingly mention to my lovely bride, “you know, it IS Tuesday…”
Are there advantages or simple pleasures you can take in your day today? Actually as I write this I realize today is my weekly lunch date with my bride, yayy! That’s a blessing we prioritize each week.
How about you, what blessing can you find today or even later in the week?
God blesses us in so many ways and sometimes we have to discover them. I pray a great week for you with God and surprising blessings.
